The possibility
of European pyramids is like London busses: you wait for centuries,
and all of a sudden, two come along at the same time: in early
2003 in Italy, and in 2005 in Bosnia. After less than one year’s
of scientific analysis, the Bosnian pyramid is already identified
as an artificial structure, thus finally providing proof that
Europe does have a pyramid past.

Philip Coppens

Europe
begets a pyramid

On
31 October 2005, various news agencies including Associated Press
ran a story headlined "Bosnian explorer finds 'Europe's first
pyramids'". This statement, as so many headlines are, is
wrong. There are many small pyramids that can be found across
Europe, from France to Greece. The small pyramid of Falicon sits
in the hinterland of the prosperous French resort of Nice and
is more notorious for covering a subterranean chamber into which
many descend but few resurface without the intervention of the
local fire brigade. In Greece, there are now 16 catalogued pyramids.
Though some may be natural, others—like the Hellenikon pyramid
near the village of Argolis—are clearly man-made structures.
Intriguingly, one thermo-luminescence test by the Academy of Athens
has dated the structure to 2720 BC, contemporaneous with the Egyptian
pyramid age. Though pyramidal in shape, the European structures
do not enthral like the Egyptian pyramids, which dwarf them in
size. Five hundred years ago, with the discovery of the New World,
pyramids were found in Mexico, but in 2001 the discovery of a
pyramid complex in Caral, Peru, was announced and again has been
dated as contemporaneous with the Egyptian pyramid age. In 1994,
the German tour operator Hartwig Hausdorf visited China and on
his return reported on the existence of pyramids there—a
discovery which has since been validated. The pyramids are even
becoming a tourist attraction. Europe, it seemed, had been left
behind...but not for long. Two discoveries—in Italy in 2003,
and Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2005—changed that.

The
pyramids of Montevecchia

Map
of Montevecchia Pyramids

In
early 2003, the pyramids of Montevecchia ("Old Mountain"
in English), only about 30 miles from the Italian city of Milan,
were discovered with the use of satellite and aerial imagery.
These pyramids are completely covered by earth and vegetation
and now appear to be natural hills, but the possibility of something
more was enough for the Czech WM magazine and its editor-in-chief
Georg Wojnar to visit the area in an effort to locate and survey
the site. The team arrived on 8 May 2003. Finding the location
of the pyramids from the ground proved more difficult than imagined,
the team becoming "impressed" with the driving abilities
required to negotiate their way towards the hills. After two days,
they succeeded in locating the pyramids and began carrying out
an initial survey. The team's conclusions appeared in the June
2003 issue of WM. The first pyramid was estimated to have a base
of 100 metres and a height of 50 metres. Three pyramids in total
were surveyed, with one pyramid showing clear signs of stones
worked into the structure, close to the surface. A platform with
an oblong superstructure of 18 by 9 metres in size was also discovered.
All three structures have an inclination of 42 to 43 degrees.
The sides of all the pyramids align and are offset from the cardinal
points by approximately 7–12 degrees northeast. The team
wondered whether this was an error in design or a sign of something
more intriguing. From the initial aerial surveys, there was speculation
that the layout of these pyramids compares with that of the pyramids
of the Giza plateau and thus to the Orion constellation—a
theory proposed by architect Robert Bauval. The Czech team argued
that their on-site research showed that the pyramids actually
align with the passing of Orion at sunrise on the summer solstice.
As for the question of when they were built, Italian archaeologist
Professor Gregoria was asked for input. He provisionally dated
the structures to 3000 BC, making them largely contemporaneous
with the Egyptian pyramid-building age. But no remains in the
vicinity have been found that can shed any further light on these
structures, and no civilisation is known to have inhabited the
region and to have built similar structures at the time. As a
consequence and despite the positive findings by the Czech team,
some critics have argued that the Montevecchia structures may
be nothing more than terraced hills with stone supports. The Czech
team, however, suggested that the site should be known as "the
Italian Giza". The Italian discovery failed to excite the
media, if only because no archaeological investigations were—and
have been—carried out. Europe might have a pyramid...but
no one was too sure.

The Bosnian pyramids discovered

In
late October 2005, émigré Bosnian explorer Semir
"Sam" Osmanagic believed he could announce the discovery
of the first uncontested, ancient and large pyramid in Europe.
The story ran in the leading Bosnian newspaper Dnevni Avaz, which
reported matter of factly that "...the 45-year-old is so
certain two pyramids are hidden in Visoko Valley that he has spent
some 16,000 euros [US$20,000] researching the area, located either
side of a river about 30 kilometres [18 miles] from the Bosnian
capital. Residents of the nearby town of Visoko have long known
about the presence of the two structures they always referred
to as 'pyramids' but none of them was ever intrigued enough to
investigate further." Osmanagich lives in Houston, Texas,
and because of his fascination for cultures of antiquity he has
visited many ancient structures of the New World and written several
books. In April 2005, he was promoting his new book in Sarajevo
when he decided to visit Visoko. He had learned about the hill
from Senad Hodovich, director of the Visoko Historic Heritage
Museum. The area is rich in Bronze Age artefacts, on display in
the museum, and the hill itself is believed to be the site of
a mediaeval village. The local people refer to the hill as "the
pyramid", which means that everyone has noticed its pyramid
shape...but is it a pyramid?

The
likelihood that Osmanagich was confronted with a true pyramid
soon became apparent. "While I was on the top of the Visocica
hill, I noticed that the shape of the hill is a symmetrical geometric
form, aligned to the cardinal points of the compass and with a
flat top," he said in an email interview with this author.
"Across the valley, there was another hill called Pljesevica,
with obvious triangular sides. Even though the hills were covered
with forest, I immediately 'recognised' the pyramids." Osmanagich
has seen similar pairs of pyramids in Latin America, which together
created a gateway into a valley.

Digging
for confirmation

An
initial survey showed that the Visocica hill structure measures
approximately 70 metres (230 feet) high, with a square base of
220 by 220 metres (730 by 730 feet). It confirmed that the structure
is aligned precisely with the cardinal points of the compass—
as is the second pyramid nearby. A postcard depicting a 1954 aerial
photograph shows the obvious pyramid-like structure of the hill,
which looks anything but natural. But Osmanagich did not want
to leave it at that. "Three months after my initial visit,"
he wrote, "I gathered all necessary permits and started with
a geological survey in order to confirm my hypothesis. The first
survey, conducted by geologist Nadja Nukich, was performed in
August of 2005 and geological tests of the soil, penetrating 17
metres [56 feet] into the structure, showed 15 anomalies, suggesting
that some layers of the hill were manmade. I had solid proof that
the hill was not a natural formation." Nukich was most impressed
with three layers of polished brown stone that lie an equal distance
from each other underground. The hill, it seemed, had been coated
with a type of "bad concrete", an unusual mixture of
gravel once used to form the blocks which cover the hill. It
was at this time that Osmanagich decided to invest in followup
research. In October 2005, he returned to carry out further geological
and archaeological investigations, with fascinating results. The
walls of the Visocica pyramid were found to be built from Breccia
stone blocks. When these blocks were cleaned, the team found that
they had been placed like bricks in a brick wall: the upper block
was moved inwards in relation to the lower one. Some of the stones
were removed and were found to have a flat, smooth surface.

Entrance
to the tunnels

The
results of the test probes inside the structure proved that it
is indeed a stone step pyramid. A flat plateau, approximately
2.5 metres wide, is followed by a steep slope of 30 metres, then
another plateau, then another steep slope with the same angle—a
pattern that is repeated to the top of the pyramid, which has
a plateau and the possible remains of a stone structure. The team
also discovered that "...the entrance causeway is paved with
manufactured sandstone blocks. They are 10 cm thick, cut by human
hand, polished and then transported to this area." Amazingly,
the length of this paved causeway is an enormous 420 metres (1/4
mile) and is perhaps the best evidence that proves we are confronted
by a genuine manmade pyramid. Small-scale excavations continued
until early November, when winter set in, with the work focusing
on what may have been the entrance to a pyramid-shaped temple
on top of the structure. The team also found underground tunnels.
"There are a number of 'intersections' along the way. Most
of them are covered with dirt and rocks, but we will begin to
clean them from the spring of 2006 onwards," Osmanagich noted.
Within a period of six months, the Bosnian team had carried out
an amazing amount of work. "Visocica hill could not have
been shaped like this by nature," geologist Nadja Nukich
stated unambiguously, according to a BBC report of 26 October.
"This is already far more than we have anticipated, but we
expect a lot more from further analysis." Originally, Osmanagich
believed that an existing hill had been reshaped into a pyramid
shape and then coated with a type of primitive concrete. But in
November 2005, after larger areas were unearthed, the team concluded
that the whole hill is actually a stone structure—a conclusion
that has since been confirmed by satellite and thermal imagery.

Building
a pyramid

Newspapers
want conclusions, so Osmanagich had to provide an interpretation
of these structures, even though archaeological excavations had
only just begun. He speculates that the pyramids come in a pair,
one symbolising the Sun, the other the Moon. The Visocica hill
has thus been labelled the "the Bosnian pyramid of the Sun".
The "Bosnian pyramid of Moon" he believes to be under
the neighbouring hill of Pljesevica. Osmanagich added: "Beside
these two artificial structures, several other mounds exist in
the same valley, and they tend to have very geometric (triangular)
sides and clear, linear breaks. Dr Amer Smailbegovich (Reno, Nevada)
has applied remote sensing techniques that showed that the Bosnian
pyramids of the Sun and Moon exhibit flat, triangular sides with
clear geometric breaklines between the flat sides. The observed
phenomena are not to be confused with triangular facets naturally
occurring in a tectonic setting, for those occurrences only exhibit
single-side triangulation and are uneven in appearance, whereas
the observed anomalies exhibit two or more, even triangular sides.
The results of thermal inertia [tests] suggest that the pyramids
are composed of less consolidated material and tend to cool faster
than the surrounding mounds (which are presumed to be denser).
This finding is congruent with what would be expected from an
artificial structure—lesser density materials, porosity,
internal cavities all contribute to increased [heat] loss."
These
mounds which Osmanagich mentions are mutually equidistant and
all align to the cardinal directions. The two pyramid structures
and a third which could be a pyramid are of approximately the
same height but differ in overall size. Osmanagich believes that
we can thus "freely talk about the Bosnian Valley of the
Pyramids".

Pljesevica,
Pyramid of the Moon

So
who built these pyramids, and how old are they? Osmanagich believes
that the hills were reshaped by the Illyrian people, who inhabited
the Balkan peninsula long before Slavic tribes conquered it around
AD 600. Little is known about the Illyrians, but Osmanagich thinks
they were more sophisticated than many experts have suggested—
evidence for which would be the pyramids themselves. Osmanagich
has unfortunately been misquoted about the possible age of these
pyramids as being 27,000 years. This is what Osmanagich actually
said: "It's very well known that a medieval Bosnian town
existed on the top of the hill between the 13th and 14th centuries.
Artefacts that show traces of small Roman and Illyrian observation
posts (2,000 and 2,500 years old, respectively) have also been
found. It is a classic example that a later culture built their
villages on top of earlier structures. (The same example is seen
in Cholula, Mexico, where Hernán Cortés built a
huge church on the top of the hill. Three hundred years later,
it turned out that the church was built on top of the largest
pyramid in Mexico.) These findings show that it is more than 3,000
years old. We know that Bosnia has continuously been populated
for 27,000 years. So, the pyramids must have been built in between
these two dates." So the date could be anywhere between 1000
BC and 25,000 BC, though Osmanagich personally favours the Illyrian
period, thus providing a much more conservative date than that
quoted by the media. Considering the importance of the discovery,
the original team has now established a foundation called Archaeological
Park: Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun, which is sanctioned by the Bosnian
Justice Department and already has a number of Bosnian archaeologists,
geologists, geophysicists, historians and other experts amongst
its members. "We are in the process of forming an international
advisory board and applying for grants and sponsorships. It is
very interesting that for the first time in a long period, Bosnian
politicians on all political levels have united to give support
for this project," said Osmanagich.

Excavation,
restoration and long-term protection of the site will recommence
on 14 April 2006, after the winter snow. "Hundreds of experts
and students, cleaning crews and enthusiasts will come to the
middle of mountainous Bosnia to take part in a fantastic archaeological
event," Osmanagich added. "We plan once again to work
until the first snow comes at the end of October." And as
such, Europe has truly entered the pyramid age…

This
article appeared in Nexus New Times 13.3 (April-May 2006) and
Frontier Magazine 12.2 (April-May 2006)